coastersrule85 Posted April 13, 2009 Share Posted April 13, 2009 First I must say that I do admit that planning this trip has been fun, but a real pain in the butt, and next year I'm going to join a TPR trip and leave the planning to the REAL experts; I can't wait!! Okay, there have been some posts of personal trips recently, so I apologize for adding another, but at the same time I know that TPR has many people who are experts on this topic, and I just want to make sure I haven't forgotten anything. Here are my plans: Fri. June 19 - Beech Bend Sat. - Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom Sun. - Holiday World Mon. - Kings Island Tue. - Cedar Point (if needed, we will start the morning at KI) Wed. - Cedar Point Thur. - Kennywood Fri. - Hersheypark Sat. - Dorney Sun. - Knoebels Mon. - afternoon at Six Flags Great Adv. Tue. - SFGAdv. Thur. - Dollywood I tried to schedule the bigger parks on weekdays. My primary concerns are Holiday World on a Sunday, Hershey on a Friday, and whether or not I should switch Knoebels to Saturday and Dorney to Sunday. If there's anything you feel I'm missing or have any advice on restructuring the direction of the trip, please advise. Thanks! Also, for anyone who has ever thought that TPR trips are too expensive, trust me; I've learned while planning this that a trip with TPR is an incredible bargain! Next year I will won't have to spend hours and hours planning, I'll save money, plus I won't have to drive a zillion miles...not to mention that the trips look like they're insanely a blast! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SharkTums Posted April 13, 2009 Share Posted April 13, 2009 Are you planning on switching hotels every night or are you looking to make 'base camps'? I ask because if you're going to switch every night, you may want to do Hershey, Knoebels, Dorney instead of Hershey Dorney Knoebels. Just due to crowds and driving. Great Adventure then Dollywood?! Odd mix on the itinerary...are you driving back after Dollywood? Do you have time to stop anywhere on the way? Should be a fun trip, but yeah, you'll be tired. Join us next year and have all the fun and none of the work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coastersrule85 Posted April 13, 2009 Author Share Posted April 13, 2009 Are you planning on switching hotels every night or are you looking to make 'base camps'?. For a couple of parts of the trip we're going to have a base to run from. We'll stay in Louisville for the Beech Bend/SFKK/Holiday World portion. I ask because if you're going to switch every night, you may want to do Hershey, Knoebels, Dorney instead of Hershey Dorney Knoebels. For the Hershey/Knoebels/Dorny portion we were planning on Staying in Bethel which is kind of in the middle. Do you know how crowded Knoebels typically is on Saturdays? It would actually give us a little more time in SFGAdv if we went to Knoebels Saturday and Dorney Sunday, because we would change from staying in Danville, a little north of Elysburg, to somewhere between Allentown and well, somewhere closer to Jersey. Great Adventure then Dollywood?! Odd mix on the itinerary...are you driving back after Dollywood? Do you have time to stop anywhere on the way? Actually, I'm flying from Texas to Memphis to pick up my neice who is just finishing up at Memphis Univ. (a graduation gift we'll both enjoy) We're starting the driving from there. Like a moron I've already booked my airline tickets and I'm flying back from Memphis late Friday, July 3. I tossed around the idea of stopping at Six Flags America, Busch Gardens, Kings Dominion, the Carolinas' parks, etc., instead of Dollywood, but my neice really wants to go to Dollywood. (Plus, so do I, especially after watching a special of Dolly on the Biography channel. She is an amazingly strong woman with an incredible life story!) Then I started thinking, it would be a cinch to plan a quick trip at any time to the DC area and visit to the parks in that area. Does that sound like a good plan to you? ...hmmm...wait a minute, now if you think Knoebels isn't too crowded on Saturday, so we change and do that...then do Dorney Sunday, which gives us a full day at SFGAdv Monday...then I could add on maybe Williamsburg (or Great America, or Kings Dominion) on Tuesday... Oh jees! I've racked my brain until it's mush. I'm DEFINITELY letting y'all do the planning next year! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPDave Posted April 13, 2009 Share Posted April 13, 2009 Definitely do BGE rather than KD if you end up in the area! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Top Thrill Dragster Posted April 13, 2009 Share Posted April 13, 2009 Go to BGE, you wont regret it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SharkTums Posted April 13, 2009 Share Posted April 13, 2009 Go for Knoebels on Saturday! Yes it will be crowded, but the staff really hustles, and the ride lines don't get too insane. Then like you said, it frees up some time...really try to hit BGW! Beautiful park, nice rides, can't go wrong there! And I totally agree about Dollywood, I wasn't trying to convince you not to go, it's one of the best parks in the country, it was just an odd driving mix! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbalvey Posted April 13, 2009 Share Posted April 13, 2009 Also, as a rule of thumb, when I lived in the area I would try to avoid Knoebel's on wristband days. I've found that on ticket days, they seem to crank through people, but on wristband days, they sometimes go a bit slower and even run only one train on coasters. More tickets collected = more money! It might be a little more expensive to go on a ticket only day, but you may find you get more rides in. --Robb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homeboy23 Posted April 13, 2009 Share Posted April 13, 2009 That actually makes since Robb. I have only been to Knoebels once and that was on a ticket day, I have never seen ride ops move as quick as they did. It would make since that they would take there time when it doesn't matter. I would agree with everyone to try and add Busch Gardens to the list. I did a quick mapquest check and instead of going straight from Great Adventure to Dollywood and stopping in Williamsburg would around 170 miles. So I guess it depends if you want that extra driving. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coastersrule85 Posted April 13, 2009 Author Share Posted April 13, 2009 170 miles would only be about 3 hours, so that's not too bad. We could get up early on Tuesday and spend the day at BGW, then that would still give us Wednesday to drive to Pigeon Forge. Thanks for the great info and ideas. If you think of anything else, please share. You guys (and gal) are great! I can't wait to join a TPR trip in 2010! Look out UK(?) here we come! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coastersrule85 Posted May 10, 2009 Author Share Posted May 10, 2009 Okay, the trip is getting closer, so I have a question about tickets. We'll have season passes for the Six Flags and Cedar Fair parks and at Knoebels we'll be buying ride tickets, so those I'm not worried about. As for the other parks, does anyone know if there will be grocery or any other stores in the area of the parks that will be selling discounted tickets? The main parks I'm wondering about are: Beech Bend (they're cheap already, so probably not) Holiday World Kennywood Hersheypark Dollywood Any help is greatly appreciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larrygator Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 Dollywood - rarely offers couponing Hershey www.hersheypark.com/tickets/coupon_partners.php Holiday World www.holidayworld.com/prices.html Can't help you with KW or BB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yellow Jacket Posted May 19, 2009 Share Posted May 19, 2009 For Kennywood: Giant Eagle Grocery stores sell discounted tickets. or http://www.visitkennywood.com/ or Pepsi/Mtn Dew cans ACE members get a discount at Holiday World Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now